Bieber Fever broken? American Music Awards hit all-time ratings low

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Kesha performs onstage during the 40th American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 18, 2012 in Los Angeles, California

Story highlights

The awards show's ratings fell 21 percent from 2011

In a way, the performance went against the ratings trend

ABC pointed out that it was up against tough competition from NBC's Sunday Night Football

Has Bieber Fever broken?

Justin Bieber swept the top categories at the 40th Annual American Music Awards on Sunday night, winning three of the night's biggest categories. But ratings were down sharply from last year.

The AMAs telecast delivered 9.5 million viewers and a 3.4 rating on ABC, falling 21 percent from 2011 to an all-time low.

In a way, this performance goes against the ratings trend. In recent years, broadcast scripted shows have been on a downward slope thanks to cable and DVRs, but awards programs have been seemingly immune. The working theory is that the more urgency you can create around a telecast, the better the numbers. So sporting events, competition reality shows and award shows have often out-performed other types of programming because viewers want to enjoy the immediacy of the event and not get spoiled by headlines revealing the outcome the next day. Obviously, last night, not so much.

ABC points out the telecast was up against tough competition from NBC's Sunday Night Football and some NFL overrun on CBS, though sports and music award show audiences don't typically have a ton of overlap.

Chart (Note: NBC ratings are very preliminary due to live sports coverage; CBS ratings are also temporary since NFL overrun delayed the network's entertainment lineup):